HELP HELP HELP

[DropEmInDE]

Ok im on the verge of a breakdown, i need to know how you guys got into waterfowl hunting, how do you do it, does your family have lots of land, do you know lots of people with land, do you beg a plead with farmers to use thier property, how do you afford decoys, how do explain to your wifes/girlfriends that you spent 300$ on calls, im seriously having a breakdown, since being introduced to this sport last year, ive gone crazy, bought multiple calls, and have gotten pretty good with them, bought a laydown blind, i even got a dog, was plannin on getting a new gun but not sure now if its even worth spending the money, see i live in a small town in Delaware, and theres plenty of land around the town, problem is, i dont know who owns any of it, i actually dont know anyone that lives in this town, im not from here im from another town farther south, and i live in a townhouse complex, so lets just say im not hunting in my backyard, what i want to know is how do you hunt with little to no money, land, boat, all i have is my gun, my dog, and my skills on a goose call, thats it, public land for ducks is outta the ??? because i dont have a boat, and you can only hunt from state built blinds, and goose hunting is rediulous, you have to enter a lottery almost 2 hours before legal shooting time, just to get a shot at gettin into a pit, that you have no idea if its going to have birds or not, all im saying is how , how in the hell do you become a profesional waterfowl hunter when you have no where to hunt, thats what i wanna know, please all advice will be helpfull, please help, im about to sell everything calls blinds, everything and go back to wasting money on my car for no reason, so any and all advice would be a BIG HELP....................thanks.................... .....


on the verge of losin it.

[mdh2ofowler]

Justin-
Both man. My family's got alotta land (now) and i know alotta people who got land. Best advice i can give is not to give up. But get out there and try to introduce yourself to farmers and meet other hunters. Work together to pay for hunting leases. When i started hunting with my Dad and Uncles like 13 years ago i was like 8. We hunted public property and it can suck at times. Fortunately i got family that has invested in hunting property in Dorchester County and I hunt back home in Damascus and Poolesville

[Justin Mcdonald]

Well thats a good ,?, I think it's in my blood . my father was and still is a avid waterfowler and it just sort of grew on to me. I also have simallar prablems as you. mostly consiting of finding good places to hunt. I do have friends with land but the only birds that use there feilds are swans and when I want to kill ducks I must use public land wich means I had to get boat wich was almost imposible at the timee I was haveing financial dificulties. So I ended up doing a lot of wadeing hunting and since you have a dog retreiving birds shouldent be a problem .I do recomentd tryin to buy a jon boat or you could just wade hunt wich could be vary efetive as long as you are in navicable water that way you still are able to obay the law. just my opinion. good luck trying to find the right place.

[DropEmInDE]

Like my family lives all over this state and Lower MD, and they all have land, but so of them have AG, but most of it is woods, my grandfather who got me into hunting when a little over ten years ago, is only into deer huinting, and when he had his house built, he bought 30 acres, all woods.... so i have some honey holes for deer, but i have like a 2hour drive if i want to hunt my familys properties....which i am more than willing to do cause i would have to get up at least 3 hours earlier to hunt public land, so i unno im trying to work things out, i just want to know how to become a profesional hunter when you werent raised on a farm with lots of land....

[HRK]

DROP EM, DROP EM, DROP EM, HEY DROP EM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RELAX BROTHER CALM DOWN BREATHE DANIELSON hey how close to the border are ya,im sure DELA-WARES? got some stupid hunting rules but dont give up on us now!!! go to your local sports shop and try and meet some new guy's, im sure theres guy's buyin shell,deeks,ect. didnt you say you season is just starting try and hook up with someone that has private land if yer close to the border of another state check out there huntin regulations sh#it man you can come to mi. and get a temporary lisence here no problem all kinds of state land to hunt all over the frickin state!!!
HEY GUY'S CAN YA HELP OUT A FELLOW HUNTER HE NEEDS TO KILL SOMETHING BEFORE HE HAS A NERVOS BREAK DOWN AND WE HAVE TO CALL THE COOKIE TRUCK ON HIM!!!!!!!!!!!

[Killer Miller]

All right dude...just slow your roll for a second (line from the 40-year old virgin, hilarious movie) and just chill out. I am not a professional hunter by any means, but have been hunting with my dad, uncle, grandpa, ext. forever.

I think I started buying my own waterfowling decoys, calls, guns, shells, and everything else when I was about 15 or 16, when I got my drivers license and could go hunting whenever I want. I was given a 1986 Dodge Aries K car, brown. I have been working at a Hy-Vee (biggest grocerie store chain in the midwest) since I was 15. Before I was 17, I bought myself a 1998 Eddie Bauer edition Ford Explorer. ANd it was paid off in less than a year. I also bought a Benelli SBE in the spring of 2003, I was 16.

Basically what I am trying to tell you is that I spend most of my spare money on hunting gear. I now have so much gear that I have to rent a 10 by 30 storage space, my 16 foot duck hunting boat is in there too. I have so many decoys, calls, misc. gear now its not even funny. Just in 3 or 4 years I pretty much have all the gear I need, of course I have to buy shells periodically and theres always some new cool gear that I think I need.

I dont experience the drawing for blinds thing here in Iowa. There are no permanent blinds around central Iowa, except some private marshes where you have to get reservations for a hunt and they draw for blinds 2 hours before shooting time.

Don't sell your calls or any of you hunting gear. Im sorry I really dont know what to do about the no land to hunt thing. Here in Iowa we can get what are called plot maps of whatever county you are hunting and it shows exactly who owns what fields and has their phone numbers. By the way, it is always better to talk to landowners in person. Ask them if they would like any meat from the birds you harvest or if there is anything else you can do for them.

You say you dont have any decoys? Ebay or this forums yard sale always has some decoys on it. THe only thing is that you will have to pay shipping. Ebay always have shell decoys and silouettes that you can pick up pretty cheap.

Just PM me if you have any specific questions for me.

[MarshBlaster]

Hey man, calm down. Delaware is a great place to hunt. It's a small state as you know, so it's not too hard to meet people. Lots of the land owners that have agricultural land have problems with goose control. This means they may be looking for a way to manage them. This is where you step in. Be presentable, be respectable, and show them the utmost courtesy, when asking if they would have an area to lease for goose hunting. Make up a simple lease agreement on paper and present that to them if they seem interested. You may be surprised at the reception you get. If they don't have a spot for you ask if they know of any other land owners that do. Most importantly, be friendly. Delaware farmers are a tight knit group, with roots that extend way back in history. Lots of them grew up around waterfowling and are still involved with it. I know, my family has been in the area for a long time and go way back in early duckin' days of Delaware. I am also married to the daughter of a farmer, who's family history is also steeped in the waterfowling tradition. So, clear your head, don't sell everything, keep working your dog. This stuff dosen't happen overnight. Lots of us have worked years to get the honey holes we hunt. Believe me, I had to deal with some bad spots and bum a lot of hunts off of friends, before I could pay them back with hunts on my places. Give it time it will happen for you as well.

[HRK]

DROP EM
PS we also have management hunt areas that u have to register prior to hunt ya know a drawing go to one try and hook up there im sure someone could use another body in there group , also look for a canoe for now, been there done that works great for 1 person,dog,gun,handfull of deeks man can you sneek up on some birds that way sorry i couldnt be more help :cry:

[DropEmInDE]

The problem is in DE on public land you can only hunt from state built blinds, that you have to enter a lottery for, works the same with the Pits, so if your not in the birds, you either have to be a bad ass caller, or give up for the day, i unno this is my first year on my own so theres prolly gonna be more than one breakdown lol, but im gonna try and pull it together and figure out some stuff, ill prolly have to spend my next week knocking on doors, and beggin lol but i will keep everyone updated......thanks for the advice lol.....btw i just bought two new calls i cant sell them yet.....LOL

[DropEmInDE]

aight so i have a plan, if i buy at least a half dozen decoys a week, by the middle of hunting season i should have a enough to at least go by myself, at least i know one day Dec 19th imma be in the field, cause i entered a preseason lottery and got picked for a field blind, .....hey its a start......if i buy a half dozen to a dozen decoys a month by next summer i should have a trailer load.......i unno , i guess i need to stop buying calls and start buyin decoys lol but its so hardddddddddd........

[Richie]

I spent most of my hunting time hunting deer here in Pa. The game commission and greedy hunters have pretty much cleaned out alot of deer and the hunting is real tough if your picky like i am and only want a quality deer. Anyhow, thats a whole other subject, i got into waterfowl because i like to hunt and it was something different at the time. Being a competition trap shooter i got into dove hunting about 3 years ago and loved shotgun hunting ever since. My buddy who grew up waterfowl hunting with his pop took me goose hunting one day and it was all over from there. I didnt even take my bow out for this season. I now have about 40 full bodies and about 10 dozen ducks of all kinds. I am working on a layout boat. This is now my passion. I am learning taxidermy for my own good and have started to spin my own calls. Also am going to start carving. I go on at least 2 trips a year. As far as land goes, i hardly know most of the farmers who allow me to hunt their land. There is tons of land and water to hunt. Maryland isnt far from you and i hunt there when i get the chance. There is so much more i could say about this subject. It can get expensive but its all i do. Anyway hope us guys can calm you down. You ever need a place to hunt PM me and drag your @$$ up here to whack some birds. Me and a buddy have permission to hunt probablly over 15,000 acres of corn and soy for geese.

[HRK]

RICHIE
thanks for offeren to help out,dont need our buddy DROP EM quacken up on us :lol:

[DropEmInDE]

you have no idea how crazy im goin over here, but i love you guys for helpin to calm me down i dont know what id do without ya

[Richie]

I would only expect the same so that's why I do it. I think that anyone here if they had the ability or means would do the same as well. But i'm just glad to help.

[Kelly Rees]

Hey brother you have to make your own opportunities or find another state to hunt. That easy. The state you live in is smaller than 1 lake we hunt...really. Go out of state if you have to. Try finding a group who has permisiion on some fields and make friends with them, or just start bangin on doors.

[DropEmInDE]

yeah Kelly Rub it in that i live in the SMALL WONDER state lol, no i know theres lots of land here, and the whole state is mostly farm land, im just kinda nervous about walking up to someones door and saying hey can i shoot stuff on your property, you know.....but im getting it figured out and Gary is helping out BIG TIME, thanks everyone for setting me straight, how could i ever think of selling these beautiful calls WTF was i thinkin :D

[HRK]

DROP EM
couple little hints! when asking for permission, look presentable, introduce your self, be very courteous, carry your self with confidence, be very polite even if the say no, when they do say yes reasure them that every tom dick harry wont be there, and treat the land as if it was yours. good luck bro you'll have some land i promise :D PS dont hurt you hand bangin on doors!

[IowaMigr8tor]

I have always had land to hunt, it is just a matter of driving. Unfortunately this lifestyle involves ALOT of driving. You just need to budget your money as far as buying stuff. Just acquire stuff slowly, you dont need to buy all your deeks at one point in the season; you can buy the decoys you need in the early season and upgrade as the season progresses. Get to know your locals. Meet some other people in the area that are into waterfowl, it helps alot. I can speak in that field personally, kingkilla, killermiller, jclausen, and I met on here and now I am constantly hunting with them. By joining forces we can cover the state with areas to hunt. As far as finding out who owns what land the best shot is to get a PLAT map. Dont give up, take a few breaths because everything will work out, getting worked up before you can even shoot them doesnt do any good, it will only make it worse when you can kill um.

[Jayson Wilt]

Hey buddy hang in there dont lose it before you come up here on the 8th and 9th I will do my best to put you on some birds. I was in the same postion before I depended on my friends they had boats and at the time I went through a rough spot I was lucky to still have a shotgun actually. Go out ask permission if your told no, thank them for there time anyway. What got my on alot farms was asking after season was over and working on them in summer doing grunt work but a few of them I have sole hunting rights on them. Offer some of your harvest goes a long way especially with Amish farmers. Like Iowamigrator said form a tight knit bond with some guys and hunt together.